Hi, I have a question regarding a SS20, it's more hardware than Gentoo related, but I'm planning to install Gentoo on it when I can get the silly thing working. If anyone is willing to take the time to help. I'm a bit new to the world of sparcs and this one is being a pain. I've been working on it for three days now with not much luck.

I have just bought an elderly SPARCstation20, it came with a TurboGX video card. I do not have a SUN monitor so I am using a 13W3-HD15 adapter to plug my ADI MicroScan4GP monitor into it. I am getting no video display. I understand the framebuffer has issues with the 13W3 adapter, but I believe the TurboGX is supposed to work fine.

Now I have attached a null modem from that machine to this, and attempted to rouse it using an ASCII terminal emulator on boot. Again nothing.

I tested the serial console both with and without all the peripherals plugged in, to no avail.

The serial console will *only* work if the keyboard is not plugged in. I know you've tried this, but FYI for future reference.

DarxusZzZ wrote:

I switched around the RAM SIMMs to see if that provided any help, then tried them each in the first slot, solo, to no avail.

Again, just for reference, the SS20 is a bit cranky about RAM placement. The RAM should be installed in pairs (if you only have one pair, then ignore the rest) and the first pair should be 16MB each or less. My SS20 would not boot with my 64MB simms in the first slots and my 16MB simms in the second slots... I had to swap them around before it would boot. The SS20 manual (pdf from sun... let me know if you need the url) has more info about RAM placement.

I was unable to get a monitor to work on my SS20 with the adapter as well (and I have no idea what framebuffer I have... I think it's tied to the MB), but I've been able to get along fine without it. I currently use a Wyse85 terminal that I was able to find cheap on eBay.

Is your serial cable a null-modem cable? If it isn't (for example, if it's a straight-through), then it won't work too well. If it is a DB25-DB25 cable, you can check with a multimeter to verify that pin 2 is tied to pin 3, pin3 to 2, ping 4 to 5, pin 5 to 4, and 7 to 7. (There are a couple more sets that should be tied together, but if it comes this far, we can assume it is a null-modem.) If you are using a DB25-DB9, then there are similar pinouts you can check (I don't know those off the top of my head, but you can google for the info.) If in doubt, get a new null-modem cable from your local computer store.

I am using a null modem cable, and I have checked it using a multimeter. It matches the statistics set in the Sun manual for which wires to cross.

I have four SIMMs and two of them are identical, so I put them in the first two slots, and nothing happened, yet again, either in serial or video.

Would the most likely problem be the processor? or is it more likely severe hardware failure? I get zero video whatsoever, if it were merely a ram problem would it not come up into the OpenBoot and tell me as much?

I am using a null modem cable, and I have checked it using a multimeter. It matches the statistics set in the Sun manual for which wires to cross.

I have four SIMMs and two of them are identical, so I put them in the first two slots, and nothing happened, yet again, either in serial or video.

Would the most likely problem be the processor? or is it more likely severe hardware failure? I get zero video whatsoever, if it were merely a ram problem would it not come up into the OpenBoot and tell me as much?

Have you tried booting it without any SBUS cards in it whatsoever? (or drives, etc., just to see what happens?)_________________Everyone has something clever for a signature but me.